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The prevailing narrative in the history of science maintains that the ancient Greeks did not have a concept of a 'law of nature'. This paper overturns that narrative and shows that some ancient Greek philosophers did have an idea of laws of nature and, moreover, they referred to them as 'laws of nature'. This paper analyzes specific examples of laws of nature in texts by Plato, Aristotle, Philo of Alexandria, Nicomachus of Gerasa, and Galen. These examples emerged out of the closely intertwined Platonic and Pythagorean traditions, and these philosophers' texts make reference to laws of nature when describing arithmetical methods, arithmological doctrines, or medical theories. Nicomachus' laws of nature are especially noteworthy, because they have features that historians look for in the search for the origin of the modern concept of laws of nature. Nicomachus' laws of nature are mathematical, universal, and necessary. This paper raises the possibility that the ancient Platonic and Pythagorean traditions influenced the subsequent development of the idea of laws of nature in medieval and early modern Europe, including the conception of laws of nature deployed by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vein of Galen malformations (VOGMs), also known as Vein of Galen Aneurysmal Malformations (VGAMs), are rare and complex cerebrovascular anomalies that pose significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. These malformations result from abnormal arteriovenous shunts during embryonic development, leading to a range of severe clinical manifestations, including high-output cardiac failure and hydrocephalus. Advances in prenatal imaging, particularly fetal MRI, have improved early detection, allowing for timely intervention. Endovascular techniques, especially transarterial embolization, have become the primary treatment modality, often preferred over surgical approaches due to their effectiveness and lower risk. However, challenges remain, particularly in managing these malformations in neonates and infants, where the risk of complications is high. Gamma Knife radiosurgery offers a non-invasive alternative for select cases, though its effects are gradual and may carry delayed risks. Despite advancements, the management of VOGMs continues to require a multidisciplinary approach, with ongoing research focused on improving outcomes through a better understanding of the genetic and molecular underpinnings of the disease. Future directions include the integration of genetic studies into clinical practice and the refinement of treatment strategies to optimize outcomes for this complex condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical clinical research, otherwise defined as research on human subjects, represents the standardized method unanimously accepted by the medical, scientific community, as well as by civil society, as the only way that allows the approval of the use in medical practice of a new drug, as well as of a new method of investigation or treatment. We will briefly present the history of medical research, with reference to Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Ambroise Paré, James Lind, Edward Jenner, Pasteur, as well as about the negative examples and errors that manifested themselves in the name of medical research, from the perspective of medical ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-seventeenth century, resorption of a testicular "ferment" and resorption of some part of the semen constituted reputable accounts of secondary sexual characteristics. Only in the early twentieth century was the latter, "recrementitious secretion" theory, explicitly considered superseded by one of internal secretion, an advance ushering in the hormone era. A reconstruction of these proto-endocrinological concepts is offered onward from the first, 1490 print edition of Galen's On Semen. Early modern physicians picking up from Galen deliberated widely on the medium and pathway of male and female testicular influences on "the entire body," including the mind, causing "femininity" and "masculinity" in physical, mental–temperamental, and behavioral terms. A switch is discernible from "heat and strength" (Galen) to blood-borne "virility" or testicular vapor (such as proposed in 1564 by Tomás Rodrigues da Veiga), to iatrochemical postulations of a "seminal ferment" (suggested in the late 1650s, perhaps independently, by Thomas Willis at Oxford and Lambert van Velthuysen in Utrecht), finally to a "seminal recrement" or "reabsorbed semen" concept soon after (emergent in the posthumous work of Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, among others). During the late eighteenth century, mounting controversy surrounded both the very idea of that concept and the involved anatomical pathways, informed by multiple experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to the extensive corpus of Galen's writings, which includes numerous autobiographical works and individual notes, we possess a wealth of information regarding his upbringing and education. According to a fami-ly tradition, he received a classical Greek education (known as paideia), which allowed him to transition from a provincial intellectual to one of the influential figures in Roman society and achieve the status of a court physi-cian. His brilliant command of language, extensive erudition, and active participation in the intellectual life of the Roman elite justify considering Galen as one of the authors of the so-called "Second Sophistic." This article scrutinizes Galen's various accounts of his mentors, early education, and scholastic experiences, with their veracity corroborated by contemporaneous testimonials. In addition to reading and scrutinizing the classical texts that formed the cornerstone of Greek paideia, Galen's education placed great emphasis on the study of exact sciences such as Euclidean geometry and arithmetic, which, together with Aristotle's logic, enabled Galen to adhere to the evidence-based method in medicine. An analysis of Galen's citation fre-quency of classical authors revealed that his foundational education was similar to other authors of his time, whereas the citation of medical authors is unparalleled in ancient literature. Unfortunately, we can only form a vague notion of his library since much of it was lost in a fire during Galen's lifetime in 192 AD. However, his collection of texts is a mix of various knowledge, rare writings, and quotes. Galen's interest in language and words, which confirmed his status as an intellectual, suggests his association with the "Second Sophistic" group. He wrote several works on ancient grammar, word usage, and rhetoric, criticiz-ing both extreme linguistic purism and loose interpretations of old-fashioned Attic language. This paints Galen not just as a doctor but also as a knowledgeable figure of his time.

By means of his Latin translations Giorgio Valla contributed to the rediscovery of ancient Greek medicine in the Renaissance. In particular, he was the first to publish humanist translations of Galen ahead of his contemporaries Niccolò Leoniceno (1428-1524) and Lorenzo Lorenzi (ca. 1460-1502). In 1483 Valla published the translation of De sectis, followed by those of De inaequali intemperie, De optima corporis constitutione, De bono corporis habitu, Praesagium experientia confirmatum, De venae sectione, and De praenotione in 1498. After his death, two other translations by Valla were printed in the fourth complete edition of Galen of 1515-16, namely those of the ps.-Galenic Quaesita in Hippocratis de urinis and De urinae significatione ex Hippocrate. These last two translations came from Valla's encyclopedia De expetendis et fugiendis rebus, posthumously published by Aldo Manuzio in 1501, which contains translations of Galenic and ps.-Galenic works, or sections of them, including the aforementioned De sectis, Praesagium experientia confirmatum, and De venae sectione. This article presents Valla's translations of the Galenic corpus and their impact in the complete editions of Galen; moreover, it identifies the Greek sources of the translations, that is manuscripts owned by Valla (Modena, BEU a.P.5.20 = Puntoni 109, a.U.9.4 = Puntoni 61, and Naples, BN III.C.2); finally, it analyses linguistic and stylistic features in Valla's translations, especially in those attested in two redactions, aiming to shed light on the chronological relations among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Athenaeus of Attaleia (fl. mid-first century BC) offers a fascinating example of the interest among Graeco-Roman physicians in marking out the boundaries between medicine and philosophy. As founder of the so-called Pneumatist medical sect, he was deeply influenced by contemporary Stoicism. A number of surviving ancient testimonia tell us that he held a distinctive view on the question of how far medicine should analyse the composition of the human body. Rather than having recourse to the Stoic cosmic elements fire, air, earth and water, he maintained that in the context of the medical art, the relevant elements were the elemental qualities hot, cold, wet and dry. This paper is an attempt to pin down Athenaeus' position on these issues, and his motivations for holding it, despite a number of conflicting and problematic claims in the surviving evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Greek version of Claudius Galen’s On the Usefulness of the Parts [Περὶ χρησέως μορίων: Peri chrēséōs moríōn], an important book in terms of both the history of medicine and theology, has survived to this day. This work by Galen was translated into Arabic under the name Fī Manāfi’ al-’Adā’ by Ḥunayn Ibn ‘Isḥāq in Baghdad in the 9th century during the translation movement in the Islamic civilization. This article aims to observe the changes Ḥunayn made in the text by generally focusing on specific terms and phrases. Particularly, this will be achieved by comparing the English translation of Galen’s Greek original work with its Arabic translation. And this will be specifically accomplished by drawing attention to Ḥunayn’s method and approach of translation in adapting Galen’s work On the Usefulness of the Parts to Islamic culture. It is clear that the term “Islamic culture” encompasses a vast array of concepts. However, for the purposes of this article, our focus will be on Islam’s robust monotheistic principles, its rejection of pagan notions, and the unique phrases that can be traced back to the Qur’ān. Elvira Wakelnig described this translation approach as a method wherein the “Greek material was clothed in Islamic garb”. The reason for choosing this particular book stems from the fact that its topic is closely related to rational theology and it has arrived to us in a complete form in both its original Greek language as well as in its Arabic translation made by Ḥunayn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Georg Bartisch, a 16th-century barber surgeon, published a treatise called "Ophthalmodouleia" in 1583 to promote ophthalmology for barber surgeons in Germany. Despite lacking formal education and knowledge of classical languages, Bartisch used German, Hellenic, and Latin terminology in his anatomical descriptions. He introduced innovative surgical tools and focused on cataract surgery. Bartisch faced barriers from religion, magic, and Galenic views, but is considered the patron of German School of Ophthalmology. His work included detailed descriptions and illustrations of ocular and eyelid anatomy. Although Bartisch's anatomical knowledge was influenced by Andreas Vesalius' anatomy book, his descriptions were not detailed or accurate. Bartisch's treatise focused heavily on surgical treatments for various ocular diseases, including cataract surgery using the couching method. His surgical methods were often brutal and lacked consideration for patient pain or aesthetic results. Despite these limitations, Bartisch's work remains significant in the field of ophthalmology. [Extracted from the article]

The paper explores Galen's notion of the chreia of bodily parts and activities, and the method of its discovery against the Aristotelian background. It argues that the chreia of an object π (a bodily part or activity) is a connection between the activity ε for the sake of which π has come into existence, and the attributes of π without which ε would cease to exist or would not be as good. The discovery of chreia , then, is an explanation of this connection. Aristotle does not use the word ' chreia ' in this sense, but in Parts of Animals he employs a partly overlapping notion which he calls ' ergon '. Finally, the paper points out that Galen's chreia is equivalent to the middle term of teleological demonstrations, as outlined in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics II 11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient societies believed the heart was the most important organ in the body. Ancient religions held that only through the heart could one connect with God. During Europe’s Middle Ages there was little to no advances regarding the heart’s workings. As the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance, scientists and physicians began questioning long-standing theories on the heart. The first accurate descriptions of the heart and its function were written, and the first anatomically correct representations of the heart were drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers a new reading of Galileo's most celebrated anagram, incorporating both the prehistory of his late-1610 disclosure concerning the moon-like phases of Venus, and the awkward "leftover letters," o and y , of the eventual cypher. It argues for a sustained analogy between components of the optical instrument, musical instruments, and particular anatomical structures described by Galen and elaborated by early modern anatomists in Padua. It proposes, finally, the cypher as a calculated response to the Neapolitan magus and playwright Giambattista della Porta's challenge to Galileo's claims about the telescope itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To understand the nomenclature of the hyoid bone. Materials and Methods. Hyoid, a small bone of the neck, is a bony part that is rather difficult to unearth and discover among skeletal remains. Results. The named was coined by the ancient Greeks, along with its anatomic description. Galen (2nd - 3rd c. AD) and Theophilus Protospatharius (7th century AD), facing religious and social barriers, succeeded in presenting its anatomy and suggesting its probable function in speech and swallowing, regarding the bone as a muscle pillar of the neck area. Conclusion. Authorities of Hellenic antiquity surprise us with their accuracy and the resilience of their anatomical descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that despite recent tendencies to minimize the differences between Posidonius and the Early Stoics, there are some important aspects of Stoic ethics in which Posidonius deviated from the orthodox doctrine. According to two passages in Diogenes Laertius, Posidonius counted health and wealth among the goods and held that virtue alone is insufficient for happiness. While Kidd in his commentary dismissed this report as spurious, there are good reasons to take Diogenes' remarks seriously. Through a careful analysis of the sources, in particular of Galen's De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis , this article offers a new interpretation of Posidonius' ethics. It sheds light on Posidonius' theory of virtues and shows that Posidonius must have granted a special status to things like health and wealth even if he did not regard them as genuine goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galen's elemental mixture of fire, air, water and earth (and of the corresponding primary qualities, hot, cold, dry and wet) is primarily a physical process, in which primary elements mix and give rise to all compounded physical bodies, inanimate and animate. As such, the concrete, physical process of mixture is an essential basis for a thorough understanding of Galen's physical system. In this article I pursued a twofold aim. First, I showed Galen's syncretic approach while expounding his theory of mixture (insofar as he attributes that theory equally to 'Hippocrates', Aristotle and the Stoics) and illustrated the reasons behind this approach. Second, and more importantly, I addressed Galen's epistemological position concerning mixture's constituents and answered the question of whether, according to Galen, are the qualities alone, conceived more Aristotelico as conceptually distinct from the body itself, to mix or if Galen viewed mixture, as the Stoics did, as a coextension of bodies. As we argue, Galen assigns the epistemological status of πιθανόν to the Aristotelian and Peripatetic doctrines. This indicates that, to a certain extent, he joins this historical debate and is more closely aligned with Aristotle and the Peripatetics than with the Stoics. By resorting to what is πιθανόν Galen obtains two results: (1) does not expose himself to accusations of dogmatism but, at the same time and in his method, enters the ongoing controversy about qualities and bodies without taking a definitive position, and (2) he preserves his syncretic theoretical structure which finds its linchpin in the defence of a medical-cum-philosophical continuism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns Aristotle and Galen’s scientific method and the place of philosophy in their natural scientific endeavors as manifested in their discussions on the role of the heart in the formation of the embryo. I will begin first by discussing Aristotle’s conception of natural sciences and his discussion on the role of the heart in the body and embryo. Following this is Galen’s critique of the role of the heart in the formation of the embryo. Galen had considerably more knowledge about anatomy and the construction of the embryo, yet his scientific method is not radically different from Aristotle’s as he also utilizes both logical arguments and observational data. Nevertheless, he attempts to banish philosophers from discussing anatomical issues, thus opening the path to specialization.

Tłumaczenie na język polski wraz ze wstępem i komentarzami dzieła Galena z Pergamonu De libris propris.

The article discusses an unusual prescription for a sitz bath (ἐγκάθισμα) derived from Galen’s treatise De compositione medicamentorum per genera. The term ἐγκάθισμα is not used in any other known fragment of the writings of the famous Pergamonian. The prescription given in discussed passage differs from most of the known prescriptions for sitz baths preserved in other medical authors of antiquity, because it consists mainly of metals and their minerals.

This paper aims to bring back to life an underrated, even forgotten surgeon of the late first century B.C.E., Meges of Sidon. He was an experienced surgeon of his time and was considered the most erudite Roman surgeon before Galen. He belonged to the Alexandria School of Medicine and later migrated to Rome to practice. Although most of his work did not survive, he was mentioned by notable ancient figures, such as Celsus and Galen. He excelled in various surgical specialties, not limited to neurosurgery, orthopedics, ophthalmology, and urology. Galen cited Meges in his surgical book on head injuries and cranial procedures. Meges was known to have invented a "double-edged" blade that he used to remove stones from the neck of the bladder. His treatment of anal fistulas was a reference through the Middle Ages. Celsus, a Roman encyclopedist of the first century, would later erroneously receive credit for ancient surgical innovations, such as the nonslipping cranial drill and the treatment of depressed skull fractures, even though he was not a surgeon. However, as Celsus was going over the history of surgery, he described Meges as the "most learned" of its prominent figures. Meges' neurosurgic techniques and teachings are deduced from Celsus, who shortly succeeded him, did not practice surgery, and acknowledged him as his primary source on surgical topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The letters of Isidore of Pelusium present a variety of anthropological issues derived from the Scriptures and from his philosophical readings. This article aims to reconstruct Isidore's anthropology by examining the value of these two realms of knowledge in his letters. In particular, it focuses on Epistula 895, dedicated to the interpretation of Gen 1:26–27, and on Epistula 1791, which deals with the immortality of the soul vis-à-vis Galen. The scrutiny of these, as well as several other letters touching upon different subjects, such as the body-soul relationship and the apokatastasis of souls, confirms the finding of earlier scholarship that Isidore was a dedicated student of Plato, Philo of Alexandria and John Chrysostom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ancient Greece, medicine was closely linked to rhetoric as it needed the tools to persuade the audience and logically justify the methods of treatment. During the imperial period, mastery of rhetorical techniques became an essential characteristic of educa-tion and belonging to the intellectual elite who highly valued im-provised public speeches and debates, including those on scien-tific topics. Galen, as one of the brightest and most prolific writ-ers of the Antonine and Severan periods, occupied a key place in this culture of the so-called “Second Sophistic”. However, the study of his style still belongs to the category of desideratum. The difficulty lies mainly in the fact that his compositions are extremely diverse in terms of their volume, genre specificity, and target audience, and in each case, require careful correlation of the text with its context. The question is considered of what modern researchers understand by “Second Sophistic” and what criteria determine whether a particular author belongs to this phenomenon. One of these criteria is paideia — a classical school education in grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, which provided many common formal features recorded in the writings of Greek and Roman authors of that period. And although Galen does not directly speak about his rhetorical education and skepti-cally comments on the methods of rhetorical persuasion, the list of his works devoted to questions of grammar and rhetoric, which is preserved in his autobiographical writings, testifies to his excellent mastery of the subject. On the other hand, even skimming of his writings points to Galen's expertise in compos-ing so-called “progymnasmata” and his mastery of literary gen-res: narration, eulogy, invective, comparison and description, refutation, etc., which allowed him to become an outstanding physician, polemicist, commentator, and inventor of scientific discourse.

This paper examines some key aspects of the formal and figurative discourse on ‘nature’ as manifested in the philosophical tradition and with reference to contemporary life. Instead of building a straightforward, self-enclosed argument for the sake of argument, it will demonstrate how someone living today may arrive at certain kinds of judgments in the light both of our collective human inheritance, of which Ḥikma is a major element, and a philosophical reasoning that penetrates into areas of life with which philosophy is not directly or primarily concerned but which are of fundamental importance to all human beings. It begins by sketching a picture of the present historical moment, which many specialists consider a historical anomaly precipitated by the abrupt rise to world domination by a single geographical region. A few basic themes relating to ‘nature’, which by tradition has been approached either figurately or formally, will then be discussed. Their upshot is that for man to live ‘naturally’, he cannot reduce his own nature to that of other animals. Every being has its particular nature. Therefore, the concept of nature cannot be considered only unconditionally or as something common to all animals. Finally, this paper poses two basic questions: Why has our necessary—but equally ‘natural’—separation from the nature of other beings been allowed to go as far as it has? Are we so alone in our modern troubles that we must cast off our human inheritance and pretend to reinvent the universe at every turn?

Ancient societies believed the heart was the most important organ in the body. Ancient religions held that only through the heart could one connect with God. During Europe’s Middle Ages there was little to no advances regarding the heart’s workings. As the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance, scientists and physicians began questioning long-standing theories on the heart. The first accurate descriptions of the heart and its function were written, and the first anatomically correct representations of the heart were drawn.

The famous discussion of Scythian cross-dressers in Hippocrates' Airs Waters Places (Aer.) 22 puzzled perhaps most medieval and Renaissance medical authorities. The text wrestled with a pre-Hippocratic, encephalocentric theory of spermatogenesis. Modern reception of the convoluted hypothesis put forward here gradually distilled three etiologies of failing virility: impotence, subfertility, and unmanliness. A gradual shift is discernable from increasingly Galenic neuro-andrological theories (sixteenth century) to neuropsychiatric (late-seventeenth through eighteenth century), phrenological and psychopathological (early- and late-nineteenth century), and finally early psycho-endocrinological (early-twentieth century) ideas about masculinity. Aer. 22 was a ubiquitously recurring reference across all of these episodes, indeed well beyond medicine, rendering it a highly sensitive index of change in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric thinking. The pre-Enlightenment, neurology-centric onset of this extended modern history of sexual/gender medicine is briefly discussed, as well as its phrenological afterlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (192–260/808–873) is mainly known as a translator of Greek works into Arabic, but he was also a prolific author. This article focuses on one of his least known treatises, On Vines (Kitāb al-Karma), which still remains unedited. On Vines is an eclectic and unclassifiable work that combines different genres. It has been traditionally considered a dietetic treatise on the properties of vine products inserted in the Galenic tradition. But On Vines is also a disputation on the excellence of trees written in the form of questions and answers and, ultimately, a polemical encomium of wine that relies for its effect on the opinions of ancient Greek authorities such as Homer, Diogenes, Aristotle, Socrates or Theophrastus. In this article I analyse the structure of the treatise, identifiying its generic affiliations and the rhetorical strategies deployed by Ḥunayn. I discuss specially the long sections on wine and Ḥunayn's defence of the virtues of this drink against its critics, arguing that the structure of the treatise is also determined by the religious implications of praising wine in an Islamic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction offers a brief overview of the scholarly landscape on rhetoric and medicine from antiquity to early modern times. It argues that the relationships between rhetoric and medicine offer a field of study quite distinct from the rhetoric of science, and that they can be understood and approached from multiple angles. It then describes the contents of the papers in relation with the argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Phlegm figures as a major cause and consequence of disease in late imperial Chinese medicine. Curiously, however, when we go back to the classics, the very notion of phlegm is entirely absent. The rise of phlegm is one of the fundamental transformations in the history of Chinese medicine. This article suggests that the little-known Yuan dynasty treatise On the Art of Nourishing Life (1338), which is notable for extending Chinese phlegm theory in unprecedented ways, was pivotal for this transformation. Noting a strong resemblance of the innovations of this treatise with Galenic medical theories, this article argues that they were inspired by an encounter with the Galenic medical tradition. It submits that these novel ideas radically altered preexisting Chinese understandings of the body's materiality and the nature of disease, and calls for closer attention to the transcultural movements of theories and concepts in the historiography of Chinese and global medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Athar alrafedain is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Farklı şekil faktörlerine sahip tanelerle yürütülen flotasyon çalışmalarında daha köşeli tanelerin yuvarlak tanelere nazaran daha yüksek verimle kazanıldığı bilinmektedir. Bu durum flotasyon işlemlerinde şekil faktörlerinin rolünü göstermekte olup, uygulamalarda uygun tane morfolojisi ile önemli kazanımlar sağlanılabilmektedir. Bu çalışmada ise galen flotasyonu üzerine tane şeklinin etkisi çalışılmıştır. Bu amaçla galen -74+38 µm boyutunda şekil faktörü analizi yapılmıştır. Farklı şekil faktörüne sahip numuneler farklı KAX konsantrasyonlarında mikro-flotasyon ve agregasyon işlemleri yapılmıştır. Mikro-flotasyon sonuçlarına göre KAX konsantrasyonu arttıkça şekil faktörünün etkisinin arttığı ancak yüksek konsantrasyonlarda bu etkinin tam olarak gözlenmediği saptanmıştır.

The paper has the task of analyzing the relationship between religion and medicine in the ancient city of Pergamon, primarily in the early days of the Roman emperors, analyzing the cult of Asklepios, one of the central cults, also known for its widely visited pagan sanctuary, located in the seat of this ancient center. In Greek mythology and religion, Asclepius was the god of medicine, descended from Apollo and Koronis. He got his name because of his birth, as his mother had to undergo an opening of the uterus in order to give birth, which is known today as a cesarean section. Asklepios actually means “open”. According to Greek mythology, he was taught in the art of medicine by the centaur Chiron. Through his studies, he was so skilled in the art of medicine that he could raise the dead and bring them back to life. His famous symbol is a snake wrapped around a stick, which can be seen in all medical institutions in modern times. This is reminiscent of the staff that Asclepius was always carrying. In ancient Greece and Rome, an Asklepieion (Ἀσκληπιεῖον) was a healing temple dedicated to the god Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine. These healing temples were places where patients went to receive healing or any other kind of treatment, whether mental or physical. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to examine the main features of the Asklepieion, especially the contemporary cultural and religious history and ancient medicine associated with it, in the context of new archaeological findings at this site.

In PHP Galen presents four kinds of premises: scientific; dialectical; rhetorical; and sophistical. According to Galen, the rhetorical premises are classified as based on external witnesses, opinions and are only persuasive (πιθανόν). In PHP II 5.20 Chrysippus uses pithanon to defend the truth that the heart is the seat of thought. Galen criticizes Chrysippus and his followers for using the rhetorical premises to support the doctrine that the heart is the commanding centre of the soul (ἡγεμονικόν). This research addresses the occurrences of pithanon in PHP and how Galen argues against Chrysippus defending the thesis that pithanon cannot produce knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses Galen's De complexionibus and its reception as a thread to examine the part played by the sense of touch in the assessment of bodily mixtures. According to Galen, complexions were assessed by touching patients with the skin of the palm of the hand because it is "at the precise midpoint between all the extremes" and, thus, well-mixed. This article examines how this extraordinary claim about the discriminative power of touch was received from the late Middle Ages up to the early modern period, with a special focus on Renaissance thought. By following Galen's text and its various forms and appropriations, the aim is to illuminate the fluid understanding of the Galenic notion of 'complexion' (complexio) in relation to changing epistemologies of touch in Renaissance medicine, notably by shedding light on the anatomical concept of 'substance' (substantia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The constitution of air served as a key concept for investigations into epidemic disease in sixteenth-century Italy. Its roots stem from the Hippocratic Corpus and Galen's interpretation of it. In these ancient works, the constitution of air was directly tied to the temperaments of the seasons and winds. Renaissance physicians, such as Giambattista Da Monte and Girolamo Mercuriale, used these texts to justify observing the air to determine if its constitution caused specific outbreaks of disease. At times, these observations called into question whether temperamental differences were sufficient explanations, leading physicians to posit vapors, exhalations, and celestial influences as causes of outbreaks of epidemic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the medical tradition, the temperament of bodies came from the balance of their primary qualities – hot, cold, dry, and moist. However, physicians associated additional sensory properties with temperament in the field of pharmacology. These sensations included taste, color, and odor, which allow an appraisal of the constitution and active powers of drugs. The present paper examines this theme in late-Renaissance medicine, through the accounts of the French physician Jean Fernel (ca. 1497–1558) and the Italian physician Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603). As will be shown, their respective interpretations of drug "faculties" offered original views on the relationship between temperament, sensory properties, and matter theories. Such discussions, in turn, revealed the Renaissance reception of Arabic-Latin pharmacology, Galenic medicine, and the Aristotelian physics of matter and form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the medical theory of the Middle Ages, every individual had a general complexion for its whole body, but at the same time each organ had a specific complexion, determined by its anatomy, its function, and, of course, the individual. The problem of the relationship between those two types of complexion was, therefore, crucial for the medical practitioner: could a shift in the complexion of the body have an effect on a single organ? Could a change in the complexion of one member alter the general functioning of the body? And what were the interactions between the separate complexions of the various organs? All these questions, which had only briefly been tackled by Galen in his Tegni , began to be systematically addressed by physicians at the end of the thirteenth century. Some thinkers started to write specific treatises on the subject, often called De resistentiis , dealing with the "resistance" (or "counter-operations") of particular complexions between them. The present paper deals with the origins of this debate, highlighting the role of Gentile da Foligno (d. 1348), and shows how the discussion evolved in the following century. Thus, the aim is to present an overlooked medical debate on complexion while proposing a reflection on the way in which scientific problems can come into being and how they can evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some key aspects of the formal and figurative discourse on 'nature' as manifested in the philosophical tradition and with reference to contemporary life. Instead of building a straightforward, self-enclosed argument for the sake of argument, it will demonstrate how someone living today may arrive at certain kinds of judgments in the light both of our collective human inheritance, of which Ḥikma is a major element, and a philosophical reasoning that penetrates into areas of life with which philosophy is not directly or primarily concerned but which are of fundamental importance to all human beings. It begins by sketching a picture of the present historical moment, which many specialists consider a historical anomaly precipitated by the abrupt rise to world domination by a single geographical region. A few basic themes relating to 'nature', which by tradition has been approached either figurately or formally, will then be discussed. Their upshot is that for man to live 'naturally', he cannot reduce his own nature to that of other animals. Every being has its particular nature. Therefore, the concept of nature cannot be considered only unconditionally or as something common to all animals. Finally, this paper poses two basic questions: Why has our necessary--but equally 'natural'--separation from the nature of other beings been allowed to go as far as it has? Are we so alone in our modern troubles that we must cast off our human inheritance and pretend to reinvent the universe at every turn? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern sleep specialists are taught that, before the twentieth century, sleep was universally classified as a passive phenomenon with minimal to no brain activity. However, these assertions are made on the basis of particular readings and reconstructions of the history of sleep, using Western European medical works and ignoring works composed in other parts of the world. In this first of two articles on Arabic medical discussions on sleep, I shall show that sleep was not understood to be a purely passive phenomenon, at least from the time of Ibn Sīnā (lat. Avicenna, d. 1037) onward. Building on the earlier Greek medical tradition, Ibn Sīnā provided a new pneumatic understanding of sleep that allowed him to explain previously recorded phenomena associated with sleep, while providing a way to capture how certain parts of the brain (and body) can even increase their activities during sleep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dopo un’introduzione sulla rivalità che, nel corso del Cinquecento, contrappose a Venezia gli editori Giunti e Valgrisio, entrambi impegnati a stampare gli Opera omnia di Galeno, si trascrivono ampie parti di una lettera finora misconosciuta, conservata presso l’Archivio di Stato di Firenze. Si tratta di una missiva risalente all’aprile 1565 del medico Filippo Niccolozzi, nipote di Tommaso e Giovanni Maria Giunti, indirizzata a Firenze al maggiordomo granducale Luigi Gherardi da Borgo San Sepolcro. Niccolozzi, oltre a fornire informazioni sugli zii e a menzionare i medici umanisti Jacopo Antonio Mariscotti e Agostino Gadaldini, parla di un enigmatico monaco greco di nome “Theoglipto” che avrebbe ottenuto cinquecento scudi d’oro per recarsi “in Grecia” a recuperare un favoloso codice galenico contenente, tra l’altro, il perduto De demonstratione, intorno al quale in quegli anni è documentabile un notevole interesse. Con ogni probabilità si trattò di una truffa o di un abbaglio, da inquadrare però nel particolare clima di competizione editoriale, nonché di spregiudicata ricerca e “creazione” di inediti galenici, attestato all’epoca a Venezia e alimentato dal perdurante mito delle favolose biblioteche bizantine e postbizantine. After an introduction on the rivalry that pitted against each other the publishers Giunti and Valgrisio, both engaged in printing Galen’s Opera omnia in Venice during the sixteenth century, large portions of a hitherto unnoticed letter preserved in the State Archives of Florence are transcribed. It is a missive dated April 1565 from physician Filippo Niccolozzi, nephew of Tommaso and Giovanni Maria Giunti, addressed from Venice to the Grand Ducal chamberlain Luigi Gherardi in Florence. Niccolozzi, in addition to providing information about his uncles, and mentioning the humanist physicians Jacopo Antonio Mariscotti and Agostino Gadaldini, speaks of an enigmatic Greek monk named “Theoglipto”, who allegedly obtained five hundred gold scudi to travel “to Greece” to retrieve a fabulous Galen codex containing, among other things, the lost De demonstratione, around which considerable interest can be documented in those very years. In all likelihood, this was a swindle or a blunder, to be framed, however, in the particular climate of publishing competition, and also of reckless research and “creation” of unpublished galenic manuscripts, attested at the time in Venice, and fueled by the enduring myth of fabulous Byzantine and post-Byzantine libraries.

Galen is one of the most prominent thinkers and scientists in antiquity, who paid special attention to the methodology of natural sciences. On the other hand, the transition of Galenic tradition to the Islamic world had a wide impact on different areas of thought, one of which was methodology. Accordingly, studying Galen's scientific methodology plays a significant role in a true understanding of the scientific tradition in the Islamic medieval ages. This article, using the method of text-oriented analytic interpretation, expounds on the status of reason as one of the two main elements of Galen's methodology. In his view, the reason is the main part of the human soul which provides the scientific method both formally and materially. Its formal functions, pertaining to the logical scope, are as follows: demonstration, division and synthesis, definition, similarity and dissimilarity, analysis and synthesis, and indication. On the other hand, in a material sense, the mind provides the necessary prerequisites for the formation of proof and implication by understanding rational axioms.

I return here, for certain points, to the distinction between λόγος ἐνδιάθετος and λόγος προφορικός often rendered by the opposition between inner and outer speech. If, as an important testimony of Sextus Empiricus shows, the λόγος ἐνδιάθετος is, for the Stoics, related to the μετάβασις which allows one to grasp the logical connections pertaining to a given situation, is it appropriate to translate ἐνδιάθετος by ‘inner’ and προφορικός by ‘outer’? I examine Porphyry’s testimony in the De abstinentia, as well as a passage of Galen, in which he passes on to us an extract from Chrysippus’ treatise On the Soul. I depart from Jean-Baptiste Gourinat’s rhetorical interpretation of the ἐνδιάθετος λόγος by stressing that the dominant part of the soul located in the heart is the seat of a fundamental operation that operates the transmutation of thought into language. Finally, I take into account an occurrence, never before examined in this debate, of the adjective ἐνδιάθετος in the grammarian Apollonius Dyscolus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous sociological studies indicate that the societal perception of women in Muslim countries is generally poor. These perceptions, argue the promulgators of such ideas, are based on the Qur'an. There is, nevertheless, no consensus on the interpretation of the qur'anic verses that supposedly promote such views. One of the main sources of negative perceptions of women is the Hellenistic learning that permeated the corpus of qur'anic commentaries. This article explores the influence of the translation movement on the exegetical tradition. There is a marked difference between the earliest qur'anic commentaries, written before the works of Aristotle and Galen were translated into Arabic by around 850 AD, and those that came after. While the former show relatively little in the way of androcentric interpretations of the Qur'an, the latter adopt Aristotelian and Galenic views of women's ontological inferiority due to increased coldness and wetness, and use these to justify patriarchal interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the ways in which, in the last centuries of the Middle Ages, the emergence of a literature aimed at preserving health by means of dietary rules or advice establishes a connection between the physician's authority in matters of health and the capacity of patients and readers to take care of themselves when they are in good health. Born at the same time of social demand and medical necessity (the latter due to the dangers and uncertainties of therapeutic practice), these regimina sanitatis disseminate to a literate public the principles of good hygiene. Some regimina are even adapted to the singularity of a given individual. But the agency of readers, characterized by their capacity for choice and deliberation, also clashes with the claim that a medical authority is necessary for the governance of health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Hypnos is the property of Hypnos / Instituto Hypnos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Galen's view, health was a natural state and disease unnatural. If a body became unwell, balance was best restored by adjustments to daily life, in particular to the environment, food and drink, exercise, sleep, physiological balance and mental health. If none of these worked, only then should drugs or more drastic treatments be considered. Galen sets out in On Health how the natural state is best preserved, starting from birth, through childhood, to adulthood and old age. There are several features to be noted, not least the relentlessly male focus (with childbirth the major area of consideration for women specifically) and the use of the idealised young man as the canon against which to measure all bodies. This latter feature has led commentators to suppose that Galen only has the leisured rich class in mind, wrongly I believe. Two recent translations in the Loeb series (Johnston) and in the CUP Galen series (Singer forthcoming) have made the text readily available to all, and further discussion is timely. In my paper I will focus on Galen's use of diet and massage to keep the body healthy. I shall also consider the unhealthy body which takes up the last three of the six books, as the life span nears later age and greater fragility. Even here, Galen prefers food and gentle remedies to bloodletting and drugs (which are in effect often stronger versions of food plants). Galen claims that this regime has kept him healthy for 50 years, despite his less than perfect constitution and lifestyle. He is thus a doctor who experiments on himself to promote a lifestyle which, he claims, should, after an initial assessment, maintain the patient without need of a doctor for life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The copyist Athanasios monk was in the mid-15th century active in copying numerous manuscripts, some of them on medical topics. Among them, three pass on the sixteen Libri medicinales of Aetius Amidenus, lived in 6th century and one of most important authors for medicine in late antiquity. Among these, two are complete copies made by Athanasius, the manuscript now in Paris and the one at the Mount Athos, but in the case of the Vienna manuscript, which dates back to the 14th century, he was the restorer. By reading these Aetius manuscripts, it was possible to rediscover some fragments of Philagrius, an author lived probably between 3th and 4th century. Among the numerous marginalia in Athanasius's own hand, new fragments have thus been identified that can be attributed to Philagrius, whose works have come down to us only through indirect tradition, as well as a short passage from the tenth book of Galen's treatise De anatomicis administrationibus, which is lost in Greek. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of travel in obtaining medical education in Antiquity is well known from the texts of the “Hippocratic Corpus”. However, the most valuable evidence about this aspect of the medical profession can be found in the texts by Galen of Pergamum (129-210/217), whose works are the main source of this study. Galen's numerous autobiographical notes allow us not only to trace the routes of his voyages, but to uncover their goals as well. After receiving his initial medical education in Pergamum, Galen travelled to Asia Minor, particularly to Mysia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, attending lectures of famous physicians and philosophers and studying the local traditions of medicine. After that he spent some years in Alexandria. An analysis of a number of texts allows us to conclude that Alexandria in the 2-3 centuries AD was a center for the study of anatomy and commenting on Hippocrates’ texts. To study medicine in this city was considered a necessary stage in the career of a successful physician and a prerequisite for recognition in the profession. Important evidence should also be noted regarding the existing medical specialization in Alexandria, the features of the local dietetics and medicinal substances. An important stage in Galen's medical career was the theoretical and practical study of surgery at the gladiatorial school of Pergamum, where his knowledge was expanded not only with the rules for suturing, but also with hemostatic and wound healing prescriptions. From his extant works on pharmacology (“De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus”, “De compositione medicamentorum per genera”, “De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos”), we know that Galen also visited a number of places in the Eastern Mediterranean: Thrace, Macedonia, Cyprus and even Palestine. The purpose of these journeys was to observe the local climate that affects human health and causes diseases, to study the peculiar properties of the local herbs and minerals, and to collect medicinal substances for his personal apothecary. According to the evidence preserved in one of his latest works, “De indolentia”, Galen managed to collect one of the richest pharmacopoeias of his time and a unique collection of prescriptions that was destroyed by a fire in Rome in 192.

From Hippocratic texts and up to the Byzantine period, the adjective μελάγχλωρος, literally “black-green”, raised debates for its interpretation. Like many adjectives indicating a dichromy, its meaning is difficult to grasp in a precise manner and lends itself to different interpretations depending both on the type of text in which it is used and on the context. In addition to these difficulties of interpretation, there is an additional one concerning tradition : μελάγχλωρος has often been misinterpreted by copyists, to the point of being confused with other adjectival forms (mostly μελάγχρως, μελανίχροος, μελίχλωρος). My investigation is divided into two parts : the first one starts from the study of some references of this adjective in the Hippocratic corpus and the reading of it, independently, by Galen of Pergamon and Aretaeus of Cappadocia, authors who are connoisseurs and extremely faithful to the Hippocratic expression. The second part deals with the field of Galenic pharmacology, where the adjective seems to take on, at a certain point, precise indications concerning the classification of remedies. The study of the μελάγχλωρος κεφαλική, “black-green head plaster”, opens the field to the Byzantine posterity of Galenic pharmacological tradition.